http://harpers.org/WeAreNotImmune.html
We Are Not Immune. Influenza, SARS And The Collapse Of Public Health
By Ronald J. Glasser.
The Trust for America’s Health (TFAH), a nonprofit group that monitors
public-health policy, in December released a comprehensive study of
what the state health departments have accomplished with their
"increased" funding.
TFAH found that only twenty-four states had spent at least 90 percent
of their 2002 bioterror funds, and only seventeen states had passed at
least 50 percent of the money along to local health departments.
Much of the money is mired in bureaucracy.
A February GAO report revealed that the states were not much better
prepared for bioterrorism (and by extension, a natural epidemic) than
they were in 2001.
State health departments can hardly be blamed for their inability to
correct a quarter century of neglect with what amounts to a mere
$2,000 for every staffed hospital bed in America.
Bioterrorism funds are being used simply to keep the lights on, and no
one who has carefully observed the Bush Administration would expect it
to follow through with its promises to rebuild the public-health
system.
In fact, the President’s 2005 budget proposal calls for a $105 million
decrease in state and local bioterrorism funding.
The new budget also cuts $1.1 billion from the "Function 550" account,
which finances disease-prevention programs and other public-health
initiatives, and the federal Public Health Improvements Programs were
cut by 64 percent.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson has claimed that
preparing for bioterrorism will enable the government to respond to
influenza and other infectious diseases; in fact, the reverse is true.
Bioterrorism is a remote threat and a massive attack is very unlikely,
but it captures the imagination of weak-minded politicians and a
populace raised on movies starring Bruce Willis.
The truly imminent biological threat, which all public-health experts
agree will inevitably strike, is an influenza pandemic.
The 1918 pandemic killed 550,000 Americans and 30 million worldwide.
A virulent flu would thus be much worse than a bioterrorism attack,
and it would strike every part of the country more or less
simultaneously.
These facts are well known and understood, yet TFAH found that only
thirteen states have a plan or at least a draft of a plan to confront
an influenza pandemic.
Amazingly, the CDC itself has yet to release a federal plan for such a
pandemic; nor does the CDC require states to report flu cases or even
flu deaths
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George W. Bush cares about the American public, eh?
Harry
.
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